What do you think?
Rate this book
ChopChop: The Kids'
Winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Award in the Children/Youth/Family category, ChopChop offers simple, healthy, and delicious dishes for children and parents to make together.Cooking at home helps kids stay healthy, builds family relationships, and teaches math, science, and cultural and financial literacy. That’s why ChopChop is your family’s best friend—and it’s jam-packed with kitchen basics, ingenious tips, and meals that taste great and are fun to make. Every recipe has been approved by the Academy of American Pediatrics and by real kids cooking at home. These dishes are nutritious, ethnically diverse, inexpensive, and a joy to prepare. From French toast to fajitas, and from burgers to brownies, ChopChop entertains and inspires cooks of all ages.
425 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 13, 2013
4 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 15, 2013
Here is a book that anybody who feels slightly inadequate in the kitchen can buy for, cough, a child they "might know" without feeling embarrassed.
This is a book crammed with lots of great advice to help get children cooking, with over 100 different varied recipes. It is also eminently suitable for the adult who wants to know more but is afraid to ask. The author's main aim is to get children cooking great healthy food, ideally involving their family along the way. Everybody wins, well nearly everybody, as fast food joints and manufacturers of ready-made microwave food may see their nose pushed a bit out of joint.
The recipes are split into key sections of breakfast; lunch; soups; salads; dinner; dessert and drinks. Great internal signposting and a full index lets the impatient cook really dig into this book. Before you get cooking, should it be required, there is a good introduction covering the most basic of the basics you need to know but perhaps have never been taught. One particular feature that caught this reviewer's eye was the "seasoning experiment" that seeks to help show the importance of good seasoning and how essential it can be for a cook to taste things as they go on - a small thing that only occupied two pages but a very important thing.
Where possible, this is a book that the cook, whether child or parent, should try and at look through sequentially at least once. Not only do you then get a great overview to all the recipes on offer but you will pick up a lot of the great background information, hints and tips along the way. As you would expect the recipes are very clearly written and well laid out. The recipes even address most of our typical "niggles" with an estimation of preparation and cooking times. Sadly, though, the measures are listed solely in U.S. imperial units. Every recipe also makes a suggestion as to whether an adult's presence is desirable to aid with possibly something considered more advanced or possibly dangerous. Each parent can, of course, make their own determination based on their child's age, competency and behaviour in a kitchen. Although, as the author notes, cooking with family is invariably more fun than doing it alone.
This reviewer will cheerfully admit that this book has helped explain some techniques and clarify some recipes that had previously been a "problem". Naturally one could have sought out other books and plugged away to resolve them but that would take time and effort… this book just helped "slip" things into the right gear. It would have been great if each and every recipe had featured a photograph of the finished item, no matter how "simple" it might have been. A brief visual clue of how the finished item should or could look may have helped the wary, nervous cook as well as helped build up the cook's pride and prick their curiosity to try even more "visually advanced" things.
There's not a lot more to add. This is a great book for beginners of all ages. This reviewer now needs to buy a copy of the finished book when it is published (this review was based on an advanced draft) as it will be something regularly consulted by father and daughter alike over time.
ChopChop: The Kids' Guide to Cooking Real Food with Your Family, written by Sally Sampson and published by Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781451685879, 208 pages. Typical price: USD20. YYYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
This is a book crammed with lots of great advice to help get children cooking, with over 100 different varied recipes. It is also eminently suitable for the adult who wants to know more but is afraid to ask. The author's main aim is to get children cooking great healthy food, ideally involving their family along the way. Everybody wins, well nearly everybody, as fast food joints and manufacturers of ready-made microwave food may see their nose pushed a bit out of joint.
The recipes are split into key sections of breakfast; lunch; soups; salads; dinner; dessert and drinks. Great internal signposting and a full index lets the impatient cook really dig into this book. Before you get cooking, should it be required, there is a good introduction covering the most basic of the basics you need to know but perhaps have never been taught. One particular feature that caught this reviewer's eye was the "seasoning experiment" that seeks to help show the importance of good seasoning and how essential it can be for a cook to taste things as they go on - a small thing that only occupied two pages but a very important thing.
Where possible, this is a book that the cook, whether child or parent, should try and at look through sequentially at least once. Not only do you then get a great overview to all the recipes on offer but you will pick up a lot of the great background information, hints and tips along the way. As you would expect the recipes are very clearly written and well laid out. The recipes even address most of our typical "niggles" with an estimation of preparation and cooking times. Sadly, though, the measures are listed solely in U.S. imperial units. Every recipe also makes a suggestion as to whether an adult's presence is desirable to aid with possibly something considered more advanced or possibly dangerous. Each parent can, of course, make their own determination based on their child's age, competency and behaviour in a kitchen. Although, as the author notes, cooking with family is invariably more fun than doing it alone.
This reviewer will cheerfully admit that this book has helped explain some techniques and clarify some recipes that had previously been a "problem". Naturally one could have sought out other books and plugged away to resolve them but that would take time and effort… this book just helped "slip" things into the right gear. It would have been great if each and every recipe had featured a photograph of the finished item, no matter how "simple" it might have been. A brief visual clue of how the finished item should or could look may have helped the wary, nervous cook as well as helped build up the cook's pride and prick their curiosity to try even more "visually advanced" things.
There's not a lot more to add. This is a great book for beginners of all ages. This reviewer now needs to buy a copy of the finished book when it is published (this review was based on an advanced draft) as it will be something regularly consulted by father and daughter alike over time.
ChopChop: The Kids' Guide to Cooking Real Food with Your Family, written by Sally Sampson and published by Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781451685879, 208 pages. Typical price: USD20. YYYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
September 15, 2015
Love this kid's cookbook! Simple, real food made from wholesome ingredients. Recipes show technique with variations to switch things up. A cookbook that doesn't "dumb" things down for children...
I'll be ordering my son a copy... but I do think he'll outgrow it within the next couple of years... maybe by then, the authors will have written a follow up to this book.
I'll be ordering my son a copy... but I do think he'll outgrow it within the next couple of years... maybe by then, the authors will have written a follow up to this book.
October 6, 2013
health-conscious children's cookbook. I love that this features large kid-centric photos and larger print, and clear, colorful layout for overall kid appeal. I did wonder about the use of raw eggs in the homemade mayonnaise--sounds yummy but potentially dangerous(??) unless you have your own chicken coop or have some other reliable source of farm-fresh (and more germ-resistant) eggs. My understanding is that the eggs I buy from the grocery store have been washed of their protective coating and thus are more prone to picking up salmonella and other harmful bacteria in the handling processes.
This book has a great selection of recipes (breakfast through dessert) with plenty of opportunities for substituting and creativity.
* As with most cookbooks, I found it helpful to be able to borrow this from my local library rather than purchasing, so for those of you who are contemplating giving cookbooks as a gift, please check your library first. *
This book has a great selection of recipes (breakfast through dessert) with plenty of opportunities for substituting and creativity.
* As with most cookbooks, I found it helpful to be able to borrow this from my local library rather than purchasing, so for those of you who are contemplating giving cookbooks as a gift, please check your library first. *
May 26, 2013
Read my full review: http://bit.ly/18sDKSz or http://bit.ly/1anKrEM
3.5/5 Stars
My opinion: This was a pretty cool kid's cookbook although I think it would be more user friendly to the older "kid chef". I did thing that some of the recipes could be iffy for most kids. There were a couple that, if I had tried to give them to my child, he would have looked at me like I had 5 heads. I loved the better chunk of the recipes for myself though.
One criticism...the book was incredibly busy. I would have like to have seen a cleaner layout.
3.5/5 Stars
My opinion: This was a pretty cool kid's cookbook although I think it would be more user friendly to the older "kid chef". I did thing that some of the recipes could be iffy for most kids. There were a couple that, if I had tried to give them to my child, he would have looked at me like I had 5 heads. I loved the better chunk of the recipes for myself though.
One criticism...the book was incredibly busy. I would have like to have seen a cleaner layout.
April 15, 2014
Pros: Lots of variations for many recipes (toppings, mix-ins, etc.)
Clear directions
Good variety of recipes
Lots of healthy options
Lots of health/nutrition information
Cons: Format!!! Who makes a cookbook with this kind of format? It won't stay open, will NEVER stand up to much use, etc.
Photos: felt a little too staged for me: every picture is appropriately diverse. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. When there's consistently a lineup of multi-ethnicities, then it looks a touch forced.
Best for middle grades.
Clear directions
Good variety of recipes
Lots of healthy options
Lots of health/nutrition information
Cons: Format!!! Who makes a cookbook with this kind of format? It won't stay open, will NEVER stand up to much use, etc.
Photos: felt a little too staged for me: every picture is appropriately diverse. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. When there's consistently a lineup of multi-ethnicities, then it looks a touch forced.
Best for middle grades.
August 3, 2016
When my husband and I retired it was with the idea that he wound cook one night a week. Three years into retirement and he has yet to make a dinner. He told me he needed someone to teach him how to cook. I have many many cookbooks and frankly you don't need to be a rocket scientist to make a simple meal. So I got this cookbook out of the library and handed it to him. He wasn't amused, but I was. The recipes are for children simple and healthy.
August 14, 2013
Pretty good book for parents of young executive-chefs-in-training.
Quite young ones though: if your kid is 10, it's too late.
Not much info on what cooking does to food, and the various methods; more of a tastebud exploration, which is of course the prerequisite to any formal cooking lesson.
Quite young ones though: if your kid is 10, it's too late.
Not much info on what cooking does to food, and the various methods; more of a tastebud exploration, which is of course the prerequisite to any formal cooking lesson.
July 24, 2014
My 10 year old picked this out at the library. I was quite impressed with it. It has a great variety of recipes with clear instructions for kids and parents to follow. It also has great pictures, which is a must in a good cook book, if you ask me.
February 18, 2015
Cooking together is a great family activity! Whip up some great meals and snacks with the help of ChopChop -- a colorful book chock full of great recipes, safety tips, and more! 22
November 10, 2013
I liked this little cookbook. My oldest child is 3 so this book was way too advanced for her but she found some really great recipes for us to try.
December 10, 2013
I found an interesting Mango Lassi recipe I would like to attempt one day!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews